Chapter Text
Taehyung dashed past the numerous aisles in the second storey of the supermarket, gaze darting across the area desperately searching for an exit as he felt overwhelming terror chasing after his heels. Amidst the run for survival with a few other strangers who had scattered to various ends, he realized that the people who were trapped and crying downstairs a few minutes ago had quieted down. Was it because they were hiding or was it because they were dead? He didn’t want to dwell on it. Screams sounded from behind and he ducked in between the lanes.
Do not turn back.
He stopped and tried to think for a moment before wiping at the cold sweat dripping down his brows. Ideas raced quickly through his mind on what to do, where to hide and how to survive. Just then, his gaze landed on a moveable shelf of snacks which was designed to conceal a small hidden storage space at the back. While he was uncertain on the rows of ventilation holes drilled horizontally across half of the shelf’s metal backboard, it was the best he could count on in this precarious situation.
He pulled the shelf out at an angle and settled into the hideout right at the moment when footsteps bounded up the stairs. The thundering heartbeats in his chest now seemed too loud for the silence surrounding him and he heard the sound of his legs hitting the floor when his knees went out. He brought his shaking hand to his mouth and clasped it tightly to suppress his tense breathings.
The group of men searched left and right, stomping past his location and grabbing a few unfortunate sobbing victims who didn’t hide in time. If he survived this pillage, he would never forget the sounds of flesh rending and the fresh metallic smell of blood that flooded his nose right now.
A small whimper escaped his throat but he dug his nails into his thighs to refrain from making any more noise. He heard the men dropping the bodies onto the ground with boisterous laughs and they shuffled away as they continued to ransack the place. Taehyung removed his hand and gasped as he took in large gulps of air to calm himself from going into shock.
This was a real nightmare. How did it all get so horrifying?
One moment he was shopping with his university friends at a supermarket near his campus and the next he was trying to stay alive like the apocalypse movies his friends constantly dared him to watch because they had come.
The vermin of Camden.
It was partially the reason why his brothers did not allow him to move out of their own clan’s residence when he told them he wanted to go to a university far north. He had heard from his brothers that Camden was the stronghold of the most infamous and powerful clan across the north border. Their members were savage and sadistic to those they deemed as prey and only a few had survived an attack to tell the tale.
However, throughout the past year since Taehyung had moved to here, the clan generally hunt within their territories and didn’t bother the neighbouring areas like where he studied. Perhaps they were getting increasingly uncomfortable on being limited despite the vast lands they had encroached on for the past decade; and he was the unluckiest person ever to be part of their first raid.
Taehyung closed his eyes. His hands were clammy and cold as he intertwined them together. Those who could escape had run out from the exit at the ground level long ago. Now he, along with all of those who haven’t died, was sitting ducks for the wolves. He opened his eyes in alarm when he heard another set of footsteps coming within his vicinity. He covered his mouth again and re-assured himself that everything would be over soon.
A pair of leather boots came into his view and he saw his whole life flashed before his eyes when a young boy similar to his age bent down and stared straight into his soul through the gaps.
"Come out, come out wherever you are." The boy smirked and licked his lips; his dark obsidian eyes glinted with a twisted interest.